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Tuesday, December 17, 2013

I'm going in for surgery tomorrow to repair a tear in my c-section scar and will be out of commission for a while, I hope not too long. In preparation I've been sewing like crazy trying to get as many things done as possible. I am so excited about what I finished and what I couldn't help but start! I am linking up with Freshly Pieced.

First the finishes...

The Harry Potter quilt is done!! This is #59 for the quilts I've ever made and #16 for this year. To see the rest go here. I am literally dying to share more of this quilt, especially the fun on the back side but alas it is my project for the Kona Solids blog hop in January. So for more come back on the 8th! I wouldn't be sharing at all except it is doing double duty as a Q4 FAL project and I need to post the finish before the 31st. If only they lined up better.

Upgrade anyone?! If you've been here before you may have noticed that I do a lot of crochet projects. They are mostly hats for my shop. Well, whenever I have a work-in-progress all the yarn I'm using plus the pattern and my bag of tools are all kept in one spot. That spot used to be the cheap-o green bag on the left. The picture on front is cute enough but it really didn't get the job done. Thus when I saw this adorable yarn fabric (closeup later in the post) I knew I was in for an upgrade!

Isn't it fun?! I used the Madras Tote Pattern from Noodlehead. I love her stuff and free and clear instructions to boot!

Here's a closeup of the fun fabric and the fun pockets in front. They're just the right size too - don't be fooled by my giant knitting needles.

There are no pockets on the inside but when you're dealing with yarn that's a good thing. Less to get tangled up in. I lined it with a linen-looking cotton.

This is the project I couldn't help but start. My little man has been so patient as he's been bumped time and time again with his firetruck quilt so I decided to work on his a little yesterday. It worked up so quickly! There are 11 rows in this quilt with 15 triangles in each row. I'm going for a bit of a random look which is always hard for me. I didn't tell my little guy I was working on it and he came in my craft room to ask me a question and stopped mid-sentence with a gasp. "Is that my FIRETRUCKS! HOORAY!!" It was a fun surprise.

I have to stop and take a minute to give a shout-out to my favorite fabric shop The Intrepid Thread. I consistently receive amazing customer service from them but I had a great experience yesterday that I had to share. I had placed an order in the morning and happened upon that page on my computer much later in the day. I was looking a little more closely at the shop page and thought - I don't think that fabric matches. PANIC! So I called them up and Julie (the owner) talked me through it over the phone and we decided that it didn't match at all. Even though my fabric was already cut she talked me through some better choices and replaced the one I'd previously ordered. She was so sweet about it too! Not only that but the packages are always amazingly fast coming out to me and they always come wrapped up in tissue paper with a bow, two extra charm squares, and a handwritten thank you note. Who could ask for anything more?

So I'll be laid up for the next week or more and hope to work on learning how to knit and a bit of hand-sewing. It should be nice and relaxing after the rush to finish things before the surgery. Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

In spite of not feeling well and getting ready for yet another surgery next week I accomplished quite a bit this week. I finished up a quilt, completed an order from my shop, and made good progress on my next project. I'm linking up with Freshly Pieced.

First Work-in-Progress...

My SIL teaches 3rd grade in Texas and wanted a quilt for her class room that she could hang on the wall. She saw a book quilt and thought that would be fun. I decided to take it to the next level. I found Melissa's Read With Me quilt tutorial and changed the appliqued words. For those of you who don't recognize the quote it's from Harry Potter and just PERFECT for my sister-in-law's personality. The rows of books are all finished and once I finish sewing around all these letters then there will be a row of books between each row of words. The top should be done pretty quickly.

See! My hubby is totally rocking it! The order was for a large adult size and he was so sweet to let me use his head as a guide and take his picture. If I thought he'd wear it I would actually make him one. He's more conservative than this though. ;)

I also have a quilt finish...

I finished up my T-shirt quilt. It was crazy fast and all told about 13.5 hours of work all completed in under a week. Check out the full finish post here.

That's me for the week! Thanks for stopping by! I hope to make a bunch more progress on my book quilt but I'm pretty sore so we'll see what happens.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Well, that was quick! I more or less started this quilt on Tuesday and here it is Friday and it is finished!! I cut the shirts into 12.5" squares. I happen to have a square ruler that size and it was really easy and so fast!! Some of the shirts, the middle row, were too long to do that way and they are 12.5" by 15.5." I ironed on interfacing to the back and then re-cut them all. Then I sewed them together, basted, quilted, and bound it all up. I kept a time log with this one because I was curious. Start to finish for this twin-size quilt was 13.5 hours of work.

This was my goal for ALYOF for December. (post here) I am amazed I finished it so quickly! I was just hoping to get it done my Christmas but my awesome hubby gave me a lot of sewing time to get it done in a hurry. This quilt was doing double duty as it was also on my Q4 FAL list found hereor on my side bar.

Update: It is now the end of the month and I'm linking this post up with the finishes here.

Here's the finished product! It's so fun! I worked for a while to get the color distribution just how I wanted it and I love how it looks.

My friend picked out this fun polk-a-dot binding and it looks great with the shirts. I was surprised at how well it matched and coordinated with so many of them. I quilted it using a zigzag stitch on all the horizontal and vertical seams. I think it makes it more sturdy and adds to the collage feel. As a side note I didn't notice how horribly crooked that seam looks in the picture. It's just the uneven grass, I promise.

Since this quilt is obviously all about the front side we went with a gray solid for the back side. It matches the binding really well.

So as payment for this quilt my friend and I exchanged services. I love jewelry but am not really set up to make my own. So, I made her a quilt and she gave me this giant collection. There were actually six more pieces but I gave them away as presents before I took the picture. We both walked away happy with this deal. See something you like? You can buy here stuff at her Etsy shop here. She's even running a sale right now!!

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

I've had quite the week! I was super-productive which makes me glad because the last few days have not been fabulous. We found a water leek in our bathroom that flooded the floor, I found out I need surgery to fix my c-section site from the birth of Ruby 4.5 months ago, and then on the way home from that the alternator went out on our car. GRRR! As consolation prize my t-shirt quilt is going splendidly and I decided to link it up as a goal for ALYOF. The recovery time from surgery will give me the down time I need to work on the baby's unfinished stocking! I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday.

I got all my shirts cut out for my t-shirt quilt. It was pretty speedy. Since I was already working on it and on a roll I attached them all to the interfacing and then re-cut them. That took me about two hours yesterday, pretty speedy!

I'm not a fan of the cutting stage of anything. I feel like I'm working backwards. Then I had to do it twice with this one once before I ironed them onto the interfacing and once after. This I was thinking I hated t-shirt quilts. Now being out of that stage I've changed my mind. They are pretty quick and easy to sew together and it combines two of my loves. Scrapbooking and quilting. What could be better than that?! This is a Christmas present for my friend's sister (yeah, I'm a pretty good friend) so it needs to be done by Christmas. As a reward I'm liking up to ALYOF and maybe I'll win something and get it done in time too!

Sorry for the yucky picture. It has been hazy and foggy for days here. I always hand-sew from a kit stockings for my kids (I made one for my hubby too) and I got somewhat behind on #5. I really would like this done in time but we'll see what happens. All of our stockings have the name top center so I added a patch on this one with her name on it instead of using the star as pictured. I think it turned out okay and will match a lot better.

I also finished my entry for the DWR challenge. I'm in love!! You can find a more detailed post here.